EDL to ease payment of electricity bills
EDL to ease payment of electricity bills
E lectricite du Laos (EDL) plans to increase the number of its service units in Vientiane and to cooperate with other service sectors to allow customers the convenience of paying their electricity bills electronically.
“At the moment we have one or two service units in each district in Vientiane. But that is not enough and we will build additional ones to make things easier for customers,” the Deputy Director of EDL's Vientiane Power Distribution Department, Mr Sakoth Latthida, said yesterday.
The department also plans to increase payments made by ATM cards or via ATM services.
People will also soon be able to pay their electricity bills through ACLEDA Bank Lao Ltd. The bank and EDL signed a cooperation agreement recently with the work plan still being prepared.
Currently people can pay their electricity bills via the electronic services of four banks: Lao Development Bank (LDB), Banque pour le Commerce Exterieur Lao (BCEL) Public, Indochina Bank Ltd. and the Agricultural Promotion Bank. “We expect to have the cooperation of all the banks in Laos,” Mr Sakoth said.
“We also plan to establish more debt free villages. Many villages in Sangthong district are already debt free,” he said.
“Sangthong will soon be a model district, having only debt free villages.”
The department also hopes to have a service cooperation with telecommunication companies and shops on the payment of bills.
By the end of December more than 326.19 billion kip was owed to the company in unpaid bills by customers in Vientiane, according to a report from the department.
“This is a 22.75 percent increase over the previous year,” the report noted.
The 326.19 billion kip includes more than 246.65 billion kip owed by government offices and the irrigation sector, followed by over 38.73 billion kip owed by home owners and more than 21.11 billion owed by the industrial sector.
EDL was also owed more than 17.47 billion kip by businesses, over 1.14 billion kip by embassies and international organisations, and more than 585.46 million kip by the education sector.
Speaking at a press conference last April, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines Mr Khammany Inthirath said EDL was owed more than 270 billion kip by customers in Vientiane alone and more than 400 billion kip by customers across the country.
The debt is a challenging issue for the Vientiane power distribution department and EDL as they try to grow the power supply business.
EDL is also investing in the installation of transmission lines, substations and other essential facilities to ensure rural people have access to electricity and to meet the government's goal of electricity provision for 95 percent of households by 2020 and 98 percent by 2025.
